GW2 April Fools Joke & Personal Story Changes (For the Better)
Despite having been a huge GW2 fan in the past, I don’t tend to say a lot of nice things about the game. So when they do things I like, I figure it’s fair to highlight those as well.
April Fools Joke: Airplane Mode
Back in beta, there was a bug where a character would get stuck with their arms outstretched to both sides, similar to someone playing airplane. There were videos of this bug, and it was pretty funny, though eventually fixed.
The team brought that back for this year’s April Fools joke. For today, everyone has an aviator cap, arms stretched wide, making airplane sounds as they run. There’s also a grainy old-timey movie effect on the screen (which isn’t fully reflected in my video because I had something turned off in post processing video settings, I think).
It’s not Super Adventure Box (still the best April Fool’s joke… and much missed), but it’s pretty cute! See my engineer enjoying this in the video below. 🙂
Changes to Personal Story
Even better, the team has decided to put the Personal Story (which they revised, cut sections and made all out of sorts) back to its original form. Another long overdue change, something players have been asking for since release, is the final fight with Zhaitan will support 1-5 players. You’ll be able to actually finish your personal story solo instead of quitting at the final fight because you can’t find a party to run it.
Like removing the WvW requirements from world completion, this was a long overdue change for the better, IMHO. But a change that may be a little too late for some of us. I doubt I’ll go back and finish my personal story on any of my characters (especially since it’s level gated now), but if I did, it’s nice to know there will be a solo option for it.
Oh, and they’re recording new voice overs for pieces of the personal story. I instantly thought this was an attempt to fix the issues that players had with Trahearne especially. Seems I guessed correctly as the forum post says:
We wanted to update some key lines for several characters in the Personal Story, including those of Trahearne, the Pale Tree, Tonn, and Apatia. In some cases, we are merely re-recording the existing lines to get a more appropriate delivery to match context. In other cases, we are rewriting character dialog to better fit a particular scene.
Another good move… though, for those of us who have already gone through the personal story and were annoyed by Trahearne, it’s a little too late to change first impressions. Certainly seems like these changes are aimed at newer folks and those who have yet to experience the story. I’m glad they’re going back to fix these things, however.